Ready to Be Surprised

Ready to Be Surprised--October 18, 2017

"But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness." [1 Thessalonians 5:4-5]

When you know the who, it is ok to live without knowing the when... or even all of the what.  If you can be confident about the who, you can live with surprise on just about all the rest.

That said, this is one of those days when I want to say to Paul, "Which is it, Mr. Apostle?" Is Jesus' coming supposed to come "like a thief" or not?  Are we going to be surprised, or see it coming? 

See, the trouble is that here in these verses, Paul says that the coming day of the Lord and Jesus' return need not surprise us "like a thief."  That would be all well and good, except a mere three verses back in the letter, the same Paul said to these very same readers, "You yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night."  So... which is it?  Will it be like a thief or not?  

Will it surprise us when the promised future comes or not?  Should I get on the bandwagon right now of those radio preachers on our dial right now who are certain they know the day and the year when Jesus will return?  Should I just not think about Jesus' coming at all, because I don't know when he'll come again?  How can Paul say two things that seem utterly contradictory in the space of just two or three sentences?

Maybe we need to talk baseball for a moment.  In a way, Paul's perspective, and really the whole New Testament's position as well, teaches us to be postured like a good outfielder in a baseball game.  You have to be aware enough of what's going on that you can be ready for any pitch to become a line drive to the your part of the field, but you have to be loose enough to run whichever direction the ball comes and patient enough to know that it might not come right when you want a hit to come.  And when that hit comes, of course at one level it will be a surprise--at least in that you can never be quite sure which pitch with which hitter will connect--but you don't have to be caught off guard.  You can be looking for surprises, so that when they come, you are delighted by them rather than upset by them.  That outfielder posture is what Paul is talking about--we know that Jesus is coming, so even if we don't know when, we don't need to be caught off guard by his coming, but can be living now like the Lord of the Universe, who wears scars from laying down his life for creation, is coming still to put right all that is in disorder in the world. 

We don't know what day he will pick to come back to us, so that heaven will come home to earth and God will dwell among humans, but it will be fitting and right when it happens. A good outfielder might not know for sure which pitch will be the one that has your name on it, but if you're paying attention to the game and the players, you'll know which players on the opposing team can hit your pitcher's change-up.  Well, Paul seems to have the same kind of anticipation in mind for us with Jesus--except Paul is convinced that Jesus is not on the other team, but on our own! We don't know the when, but we do know the who, and that helps us to be ready for what to expect when Jesus does after all come to us. We can be ready to be surprised, in other words.

That brings us back to the matter of the who and the when. We can stand a surprise more easily in this life if we know the person who is surprising us.  It helps to know that we can trust the person (Jesus, in this case) who is going to surprise us, too.  I've been thinking this week about the surprise birthday party I threw for my wife a few years back.  Now while she didn't know for sure what I was up to, she was willing to leave the plans for her birthday up to me. There's nothing odd about that.  It makes perfect sense that spouses would trust each other with those kinds of surprises, because there is theoretically already the foundation of a solid relationship underneath.  You don't trust a perfect stranger to take you out for an evening when you don't know where you're going or what will happen, but you can trust yourself to be surprised by someone who has won your trust and who loves you. (Even for those who go on blind dates--which are a notorious gamble at best--a couple meets somewhere they both agree on, don't they?)  And yet when it is someone you have learned to trust, you can let yourself be surprised much more easily. It seems obvious when we're talking about birthday parties and spouses that the difference in being surprised has to do with trust.

So, was my wife surprised when her friends appeared and shouted, "Happy birthday"?  Well, yes and no--yes, in that she couldn't have perfectly predicted what I was planning, but no, she wasn't caught off guard exactly, either.  She could trust that whatever I had up my sleeve would be good and would be fitting with my character and with hers.  My wife might not have known the when of her surprise birthday party, but because she knew who was in charge of orchestrating the day (me), she could trust that the what would somehow seem right.

Well, it seems that this is the same kind of relationship Paul invites us to have with Jesus, too.  We don't know the when of his coming and the great surprise party that will unfold when it happens.  But we do know what Jesus is like. 

We do know the who, and so we won't be (or at least we don't need to be) caught off guard when God's promised future does come.  We may not know the moment it will happen, but when it does happen, there will be something about the moment that will fit perfectly with who Jesus is and how he has related to us before.  We can look ahead with hope rather than with fear because there is a foundation of a solid relationships underneath already. That's because the one surprising us is trustworthy... and we have already seen what Jesus is like.  Whatever Jesus' coming is like, it will be consistent with who Jesus himself is.  There will be no bait-and-switch. There will be no Jekyll-and-Hyde.  The One who triumphs over death by dying for us will be the one who reigns at the last--he does not suddenly change tactics and resort to missiles and armies and threats to get his way.  Jesus is Jesus is Jesus, all the way down.

That's actually really important to be clear about, because sometimes you'll hear religious voices say things like, "Jesus came the first time all meek and mild, but when he comes again, he's gonna let his wrath run wild!"  You get the impression that they think Jesus has split personalities or schizophrenia.  But to hear Paul tell it, the thing that makes it possible for us to face the future with all its uncertainty is knowing that Jesus remains our constant. Paul doesn't think we have to worry about whether we'll get "Merciful Jesus" or "Angry Jesus" or "Lamb Jesus" or "Lion Jesus" or "Peacemaking Jesus" or "Saber-Rattling Jesus"--Paul is convinced that the same one whose power came from self-giving love all the way to a cross is the one who will reign at the last.  Jesus is Jesus is Jesus... all the way down.

So, as Paul says, the day of Jesus' coming does not have to surprise us like a thief--that is, in a fearful, defensive way.  But it can surprise us the way someone who loves you throws you a party--we who have learned to trust Jesus this far in our lives can let our defenses down enough to let Jesus surprise us, and to trust that it will be just what we have been waiting for after all.

O Christ our Lord, we will do all we know to do in this day to let you in and to let ourselves be watchful and hopeful. Surprise us as you will, Lord, but be faithful to your own good character as you do, and we will be joyful in it.